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Santa Maria Regina dei Martiri in Via Ostiense
'''Santa Maria Regina dei Martiri in Via Ostiense '''is a later 20th century parish church at Via Carlo Casini 282 in Dragona, which is the last suburb north of the Via Ostiense before you reach Ostia Antica. It is in the Acilia Nord zone. Name The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of "Queen of Martyrs". She died in peace in bed, but the title is an allusion to her Sorrows. The rather odd full name is the official one, used by the Diocese. However, the church is actually seventeen city blocks from the Via Ostiense. History The parish was set up in 1963, the mother parish being San Francesco d’Assisi ad Acilia. The church was designed by Aldo Aloysi and Ernesto Vichi, was begun in 1963 and was completed in 1968. There was a project published in 2014 which proposed the remodelling of the façade, but nothing had happened by 2016. See here. Exterior Layout and fabric This is a straightforward edifice, on the plan of a hexagon stretched along the major axis and with very oblique side angles. There is a narrow trapezoidal external entrance lobby, and a matching trapezoidal apse at the other end. The fabric consists of a reinforced concrete frame with red brick infill. The frame includes transverse slab piers at the near and far corners, which are downwardly tapered, and five narrow piers in the sides including one at each side angle. These support horizontal beams on which the roof rests. The main roof has white bargeboard eaves which are slightly overhanging, and has four very gentle pitches. The roofing material is a black composition. The apse roof has a backward pitch which is slightly incurved. The lobby has a gable pitch. Each of the four side walls has a row of three separate but identical vertical rectangular windows, rather high up and with slightly protruding concrete frames. The apse side walls have a pair of these windows. Theres seems to be no campanile. Façade The entrance lobby has windowless side walls, each of which has five decorative horizontal stripes in the brickwork created by laying a course of vertical bricks slightly recessed. The actual frontage is in light grey peperino stone, and is in two storeys. The first storey has three doorways simply inserted into the wall, the central door being larger. Above are three large window apertures matching the widths of the doors, and with their tops matching the slopes of the gentle gable angle above. These have metal grilles. The roof rests on two deep white concrete beams at the sides, and these meld with a shallow concrete canopy created by extending the gable. This is supported by a pair of corbel piers occupying the height of the side windows below. The recent proposal as regards the façade has been to remove this canopy, and insert terracotta statues of Our Lady and SS Peter and Paul into the window apertures. Interior The very simple interior has downwardly tapered wall piers at the near and far corners, and five down each side -the same piers which are visible on the exterior. These piers support transverse roof beams. The near and far of these have a very slight angle incut into their under surfaces, but the other five have theirs as inverted W's. Piers and beams are in a pale ochre yellow, but the rest of the interior is in white. The sanctuary is entered through an undecorated portal with a slightly angled top. The back wall has a large sculpture depicting the Cross as the Burning Bush, and in this hangs an icon of Our Lady. The altar has been brought forward into the nave, the floor of the end of which has been raised. The former location has been replaced with seats for the liturgical ministers, and the tabernacle has been moved to the far left hand corner. It is a gilded box on a stand. Liturgy According to the Diocese (July 2018), Mass is celebrated on Sundays and Solemnities at: 17:30 (Saturday), 8:00, 10:00, 11:00, 17:30. There is no online information on weekday Masses. External links (There is no parish website.) Official diocesan web-page Info.roma web-page Beweb web-page Category:Catholic churches Category:Outside the walls - South-West Category:Dedications to the Blessed Virgin Mary Category:Parish churches Category:20th century